Every two weeks, Mike Moffatt, Senior Director at SPI, explores five things to watch in the green economy in a segment for Smart Prosperity: The Podcast.

Here are five things happening in the green economy this week:

1) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans for the federal government to spend nearly 15 billion dollars over the next eight years on public transportation projects. Part of that funding will go toward stable and predictable funding for municipal projects, for everything from subway extensions, electrifying transit fleets with zero-emissions vehicles, to walkways and cycling pathways.

2) Denmark’s government has agreed to take a majority stake in a 25 billion pound artificial “energy island”, which is to be built 50 miles offshore. The island will initially have an area the size of 18 football fields – and in its first phase will be able to provide 3 million households with green energy.

3) Pollution from fossil fuels causes one in five premature deaths globally, suggesting the health effects of burning coal, oil and natural gas may be far higher than previously thought. Parts of China, India, Europe and the northeastern United States are among the hardest-hit areas according to a new study published in the journal “Environmental Research”.

4) Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is offering a 100 million dollar carbon capture prize. To win the competition, teams would have "to create and demonstrate a solution that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and lock it away permanently in an environmentally benign way".

5) Quebec Premier François Legault has reversed course and re-approved a Indigenous-partnered windfarm, noting that wind investments are now more cost effective than hydro in the province while at the same time leveraging hydro assets.

Listen to the full segment, and plenty of other great content, in today's new episode of Smart Prosperity: The Podcast. Our podcast provides fresh takes on the current affairs, politics, research and business of the clean economy. New episodes posted every two weeks.